Nashville Rising: The Mayors

Mar. 29, 2013

All six of Metro Nashville's mayors have had radically different personalities and styles. Yet each left a profound mark on Nashville.

We turned into a united city, rather than split urban vs. rural. That's thanks to Beverly Briley, the flashy, larger-than-life political kingpin of his day.

We treasure downtown and put energy and money into preserving it and promoting it, while also building strong suburbs. That's thanks to Richard Fulton, the dignified white-haired man with steely blue eyes who never broke a sweat.

We will not tolerate scandal in the Metro Courthouse, and have no patience with politicians who abuse our trust. That's thanks to Bill Boner, the friendly every-man consummate politico who knew everybody's name and their family history, but had a mess of personal issues.

We are now a city with international stature, no longer a sleepy little Southern town. We bet on the long shots. That's thanks to Phil Bredesen, the intelligent, quiet businessman who cleaned out the good-ole-boys.

And today, we're a city determined to fix a beleaguered education system, build tourism and convention business, lure jobs and live healthier lives. That's thanks to current Mayor Karl Dean, the bus-riding, walk-taking former public defender who has won the hearts of the city's business community.

There are some interesting back stories among the six mayors. The first three, Briley, Fulton and Boner, all hailed from the east side of the river. A common phrase that used to be batted around was the "East Nashville Mafia"; All three were highly political men, akin to political machines, whose supporters got city jobs and promotions. Yet Briley loathed Fulton's mayoral style, and opposed him when he ran for re-election.

(Page 3 of 24)

Bredesen challenged Boner, and got trampled. When Boner chose not to run again amidst a sexual scandal, Bredesen won the mayor's office handily, making him the first "Yankee" in office. Today, having native Nashville blood doesn't matter in a mayor's race. Bredesen and Boner now have a conciliatory relationship.

Not so much Bredesen and Purcell, who have a notorious feud. All the reasons aren’t known, but two are. First, Bredesen is wealthy and took his time deciding whether to run for governor, a race Purcell was interested in. Purcell felt in limbo while Bredesen made up his mind. Second, Mayor Purcell frequently and publicly criticized Bredesen's administration.

Despite the politics, the six mayors had much in common. All emphasized running government efficiently. All had to work with one of the country's largest city councils. A combination of all their leadership led voters to decidedly kill the worst referendum in history, a move to limit government services to English only.

What does it mean for the next slate to run for mayor? Voters are open to a variety of styles but intolerant of anyone who harms our city. We want strong leaders with decisive, new ideas. We want leaders who spend our money well.

Beverly Briley: Metro's first mayor

Beverly Briley, Metro Nashville’s first mayor, was known as the “father” of metropolitan government and, in his day, Nashville’s most powerful politician. He died in 1986 at age 66 of bladder cancer.

"One of his quotes was that he never made a wrong decision," said Rob Briley, his grandson.

Beverly Briley was raised in Inglewood. He left his law practice in 1943 to join the Navy. After the war, he ran for state senate on the "GI Joe" ticket but was defeated.

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 5 of 24)

In 1950, he was elected county judge. For 13 years, he was a reformer on the court and became an expert on municipal finance. He created the first county public works department and began building sewage treatment facilities.

Briley was one of the first on board with the idea of consolidating city and county governments to stop the waste of duplicating services. That was 1953, and it was a radical idea. On June 28, 1962, Metro was finally approved by voters.

"There were a lot of racial issues that were pressing," said David Briley, the mayor's grandson. Those included lunch counter protests downtown, which led former Mayor Ben West to declare they should be desegregated. At the same time, Briley was negotiating behind the scenes to make sure the new Metro Council would be big enough to ensure that minorities would claim be ensured of claiming a few seats.

Without that, Metro government probably wouldn't have passed. Mayor Briley kept that from being "a turning point that could have blown the whole thing up."

Briley also was central to keeping the peace in Nashville's streets after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., calling in the National Guard and meeting with African-American leaders to try to and calm things down.

When Metro won approval from voters, Briley and West debated who should run for mayor. West, figuring the first Metro mayor would be wildly unpopular because of the rapid changes on the way, declined to run. The two men figured the winner would be a one-term mayor. Briley was elected over Clifford Allen in 1963. He won re-election four years later over a one-issue candidate named Casey Jenkins, who opposed school busing. Briley sailed to a third term. He served until 1975.

(Page 6 of 24)

As mayor, he merged services, headed urban redevelopment of Capitol Hill, saw the city's first skyscraper built, the L&C Tower, and expanded the road and interstate systems.

Briley had a broad range of support from both residents and businesses, including the music industry. Later mayors would distance themselves from Music Row, but Briley embraced it.

People referred to Briley as "gutsy," "crafty and colorful," "a scrapper" and "the little bulldog." He was a stickler for efficiency. He began to guide Nashville from a quaint Southern city into the powerhouse it is today.

But he famously tangled with the Metro Council, declaring at one point that they were "40 jealous whores."

After he left office, he practiced law in Madison.

Briley also had a not-so-well-kept secret: He was an alcoholic. After he left office, he was arrested for drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident that led to two people being seriously injured. He came clean in a press conference and entered Cumberland Heights for treatment.

In his obit, he was described as "a short, stocky man with twinkling blue eyes and a trim mustache that would become one of his most distinguishing features."

David Briley said that to understand his grandfather is to understand the attitude of voters when he served: "It was a time when people believed government could be used for good."

Richard Fulton: Metro's second mayor

Richard Fulton spent 45 of his 86 years as mayor of Nashville, state senator and U.S. congressman.

Fulton was the second mayor of Metro Nashville, serving three terms from 1975 to 1987.

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 8 of 24)

Most locals point to Fulton's biggest accomplishment as kicking off downtown Nashville's resurgence. He built the city's first convention center, a controversial project at the time. But in the end, it help turn around downtown by attracting other development and investment.

"It finally all worked out," Fulton said.

He was the first to recognize the recreational power of a downtown riverbank, building Riverfront Park. He pushed for historic preservation of the Second Avenue warehouses and Union Station. He fought bankers who didn't want to grant mortgages in East Nashville. And, despite heated opposition, he backed the construction of the Interstate 440 loop. He was also a major supporter of airport expansion.

But Fulton says the thing he's most proud of is "pushing the metropolitan form of government to the county line" - providing sewer and water lines and fire protection. That spurred suburban growth.

Fulton ran for governor unsuccessfully three times, and he ran for mayor again in 1999, coming in a distant second.

Born and raised in East Nashville, he worked as a paperboy before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He entered politics unexpectedly when his brother, Lyle, died shortly after receiving the Democratic nomination to the state senate. He ran several family-owned variety stores, then ran for Congress in 1962.

As a congressman, Fulton stood firmly in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Fulton was recruited to run for mayor by a well-heeled, secretive assortment of citizen insiders, known as the Watauga Group.

After leaving office, Fulton started the Bank of Nashville and went on to pursue real estate and development deals before retiring.

Bill Boner: Metro's third mayor

Boner's turbulent run as mayor never lacked passion

Love for hometown was clear, but embarrassing escapades proved costly

Metros third mayor, Bill Boner, was by far the city's most controversial mayor and the only one to serve just one term. He choose not to run for re-election amid a storm of embarrassing bad publicity.

Boner, 68, has since rebuilt his life and his reputation, teaching social studies at Franklin High School and working as a referee and youth sports coach. He is now retired.

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 10 of 24)

Born in East Nashville to a low-income family, Boner was a basketball star at East Nashville High School before graduating from Middle Tennessee State University and what was then Peabody College. He became a teacher and basketball coach. He won a seat in the state house in 1970. He then served five terms in the U.S. House, generating headlines on how he managed to turn an income of $1,500 into holdings worth more than $1 million. He was the subject of a federal bribery investigation but was never charged with any crime.

He served as mayor from 1987 to 1991. He promised to make the pay for firefighters the same as police officers, something he accomplished. He was widely supported by the vice mayor and Metro Council, but the relationship grew quickly chilly, and he had trouble getting legislation passed.

In two well-publicized stunts, Boner went undercover to buy drugs and then posed as a homeless person. Both were efforts to point out what he felt were holes in government. The result: Boner added walking police patrols to the city's housing projects, decreasing drug trafficking. But an effort to build a 100-bed hotel for the homeless was killed.

He received kudos for appointing diverse department heads, creating a minority bidding program, starting recycling, rebuilding the city's reserve fund despite a financial recession and championing a new airport runway. He waged war to clean up Batavia Alley in North Nashville from thugs and drug dealers. He also built the Juvenile Justice Center but failed in his efforts to construct a new landfill in Davidson County, which he wanted to build because the Bordeaux landfill was full. He was wildly flogged for changing backyard garbage pickup to street side, but it saved the city money.

But the biggest story was his personal life. Boner and his third wife filed for divorce one month after he was elected. They reunited before filing for divorce again.

(Page 11 of 24)

While they were separated, he dated one of his female bodyguards, a Metro police officer. The girlfriend was spotted shooting pigeons off the roof of his East Nashville home with a BB gun.

Then he met a local lounge singer on the golf course, and they began a notorious affair. He gave her a 2.2 carat engagement diamond (which turned out later to be fake); she bragged to a reporter about their "seven hours of passion".

Under pressure to resign, Boner held a $500-per-person fundraiser, announcing days later he wouldnt run again. He kept the money, which was legal at the time. After he left office, he divorced again, sought counseling, and remarried.

"The Lord's been good to me despite myself," Boner told Tennessean sports writer Mike Organ. Boner agreed to do a video interview with Organ, provided the newspaper give him the questions in advance.

Phil Bredesen: Metro's Fourth mayor

Phil Bredesen, who served as Nashville mayor from 1991 to 1999, was first greeted by skeptical voters with two old-South views: he's "not from here" and "his wife kept her maiden name".

Bredesen first ran for mayor and then congress, and lost both times. But by time he ran for mayor again, voters were sick and tired of good ole boys who were harming Nashville's reputation. In the wake of his predecessor's personal scandal, Bredesen swept easily into the Metro Courthouse.

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 13 of 24)

Born in a small town in New York state, Bredesen was the first Metro mayor not to hail from the east side of the river, something people referred to as "the East Nashville mafia". He ran the city as an executive.

"I saw Nashville a little bit as an outsider," he said.

As mayor, Bredesen believed it was time to "invest in civic furniture". He built Bridgestone Arena, millions of dollars of new schools, the magnificent downtown library, and the city game changer: the Eastbank stadium that became home to the Tennessee Titans. People thought he was crazy when he entered negotiations with Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams, but once the team was committed, the public overwhelmingly approved a referendum to build the $292 million stadium.

Bredesen also persuaded the Metro Council to approve the merger of General and Meharry-Hubbard hospitals. He used city incentives to broker deals with Gaylord Entertainment, Columbia HCA and Dell Computer.

There was just this huge, pent-up desire in Nashville to be more than just this little Southern city," Bredesen said recently. "The city expected more of itself. Nashville was ready to move on from this old-style political management. Today, Nashville's sense of who it is is certainly different."

In 1994, while still mayor, he ran for governor and lost to Don Sundquist.

Bredesen, 69, was born in Shortsville, N.Y. to parents of modest means. He attended Harvard University, earning a degree in physics. In 1970, he lost a bid for a Massachusetts senate seat, but won a seat on the local city council in Lexington in 1972.

He moved to Nashville in 1974 when his wife, Andrea Conte, was hired by Hospital Corporation of America. An unemployed Bredesen famously created a company from a seat in the library to operate health maintenance organizations. He sold the company in 1986, making $47 million.

(Page 14 of 24)

Since leaving the mayor's office, Bredesen served two terms as governor, is part of the national Fix the Debt effort, chaired Complete College America, was on the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and wrote a book.

Bill Purcell: Metro's fifth mayor

Bill Purcell, Metro's fifth mayor, did an unusual thing when he was campaigning: He put his desk in his front yard.

It was part of a highly effective television commercial meant to get across what Purcell wanted to become — the "neighborhood mayor'.

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 15 of 24)

That he did. His administration emphasized improved funding for public schools, putting in hundreds of miles of sidewalks and restoring neighborhood fire halls. Purcell served two terms, from 1999 to 2007.

By far the best orator of any Metro mayor, Purcell pushed for some notable building projects. They included the renovation of the historic Metro Courthouse, creation of the Public Square Park, demolition of the eyesore waste-to-energy Thermal Transfer Plant downtown, construction of a new symphony hall and criminal courts building. He developed a park in Bells Bend, established greenways and dog parks and redeveloped Rolling Mill Hill. He also transformed the Shelby Street Bridge into a pedestrian route over the river. Under his tenure, downtown residential life began to come back.

But he consistently slow-walked plans for a new downtown convention center, upsetting many in the business community. Purcell also had a sometimes cranky relationship with the Metro Council, but he successfully got it to vote with him on two property tax hikes.

Born in Philadelphia, Pa., Purcell attended Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. He came to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University Law School. After graduating, he practiced at the West Tennessee Legal Services Agency in Jackson before coming back to practice in Nashville.

Purcell ran and won a seat in the state House in 1986, where he served five terms and was the majority leader.

After leaving office, Purcell became a Harvard University Institute of Politics fellow, and then worked as an interim dean at Tennessee State University before returning to Harvard for a special project. He has since returned to Nashville and hung up his legal shingle at Jones Hawkins & Farmer, PLC. Purcell said he has no plans at this time to run for mayor again or any other office.

(Page 16 of 24)

He lives in the historic Lockeland Springs neighborhood in East Nashville and sometimes drives an antique red fire truck. Purcell, who started the July 4 Hot Chicken Festival, also is the citys first and foremost connoisseur of hot chicken.

"The people of Nashville are genuinely happy about where we are as a city," Purcell said.

Karl Dean: Metro's sixth (and current) mayor

Poised Dean leads city from brink of disaster to brim of big dreams

Shining moment as mayor came amid some of Nashville’s darkest days

Mayor Karl Dean, 57, now serving his second term, is Metro’s sixth mayor. He was elected in 2007 after serving three terms as Metro Public Defender and a stint as city attorney. He coasted to win re-election in 2011.

Dean was born in Sioux Falls, S.D., attended college in New York City and moved to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University Law School.

(Page 17 of 24)

Steven Harman / The Tennessean

(Page 18 of 24)

He’s had big wins during his administration, including pushing for the construction of the mammoth $585 million Music City Center, paid for with visitor taxes. Dean has made education and public safety his top priorities, fully funding schools every year he’s been in office. He brought the Metro Police Department to full staffing. He successfully renegotiated the Nashville Predators lease — twice.

His greatest challenge came in May 2010, when more than 13 inches of rain flooded Nashville. Dean and Metro government responded calmly and quickly. They kept the water supply from being shut down and fairly quickly removed the hundreds of thousands of pounds of debris left in the flood’s wake. He went on to set up a unique funding mechanism to subsidize what flood victims received from the federal government.

Dean had one well-publicized flameout. An effort to develop the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, moving the fair and other events elsewhere, was his biggest failure in the Metro Council.

Less visible, but important, was an early initiative by Dean to dramatically ramp up improvements to the city’s water and sewer systems. The effort required a new fee on homeowners. After that, Dean’s administration was hit with the recession, causing him to put a temporary moratorium on most projects. He successfully passed a property tax hike in 2012, his first and only to date.

Dean also has successfully passed a series of tax incentive packages to bring new jobs to Nashville. He is now concentrating on mass transit.

Dean uses the mayor’s office as a bully pulpit for healthy living, leading 4,000 residents in his Walk 100 Miles With the Mayor program.

The mayor says he does not know what he’ll do after he leaves the mayor’s office.

(Page 19 of 24)

“I want to stay in public service,” he said. “I know I’ll never have a better job than this.”

The mayors of Metro Nashville

Nashville's Time is Now

As Metro turns 50, we celebrate our successes and confront our challenges. Metro government made its debut April 1, 1963. Fifty years later, Nashville is as radiant as ever, topping all kinds of best-of lists, but there are still big challenges to conquer in the years ahead.

How Metro came to be

(Page 21 of 24)

Metro government might seem like a foregone conclusion to anyone under the age of 55. But the people who wanted it had to fight for it. Fifty years later, heres a look back at the rocky road to consolidation.